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Holly O'brien is your friendly neighborhood barista, keeping the masses caffinated with a smile. She lives with her partner, who is in school to become an ASL interpreter, and his mother and step-dad. Holly has goals of moving to Rochester, New York and getting 19 cats, all whom which she's already picked out names for.

Holly also loves Camp Quest, even though she's not into the idea of camping. In the past two years, Holly's moved from being a first time volunteer camp counselor, to being a board member and part of the planning committee. She wants to help spread the joy of Camp Quest wherever she goes. Hear how she got involved and why.

Ten years ago, one of the most important, life-changing events happened in my life: my family left Religion. I came from a Fundamentalist, Evangelical Christian background, and spent my entire childhood going to Church at least three days a week and attending a private Christian school. Every part of my daily life was completely immersed in indoctrination and religious dogma. At the time, I didn't necessarily see anything wrong with it. I was a kid who was mostly concerned with playing with my friends, acting as the classroom teacher to my stuffed animals and playing outside in my magical world of make-believe. I went along with the religion because it was the life my family was choosing to live. As I got older, I started to ask questions about and challenge what I was being told, instead of just accepting it as fact or truth. Needless to say, my questioning the indoctrination process was not well received by the Church. My mother, however, continued to encourage us to ask questions and think for ourselves. Then came the breaking point. » Read more

The winners are in from round one, and now the final round of Camp Quest's Famous Freethinker Faceoff begins! From now until December 12th your donations will determine which of these famous freethinkers become the Aces in our upcoming Famous Freethinker playing card deck!

So click on your favorite contest, and advance your favorite freethinker all while supporting Camp Quest! You'll be glad you did.

Here's the best part! Not only does your gift help determine who the winners are in our Famous Freethinker Faceoff, you also help support Camp Quest's amazing programs. Here's three great reasons to make a tax-deductible contribution now!

Camp Quest is growing! This year we served over 1,000 campers and their families, but demand for our programs far exceeds our capacity. Your contributions go directly to helping us grow to support the unmet needs of secular families around the country!

Camp Quest is the only organization in the secular movement dedicated entirely to children and their families. See what one family says about their experience:

“We have met many wonderful people through our association with Camp Quest, and our children have grown remarkably from it. Not only have we found a tool to facilitate our childrens' growth, we have found something that has proven otherwise elusive to us: community. I recommend Camp Quest for the believer and non-believer alike. No other organization has been as respectful to the individual development of my children, and no other organization has done as much to welcome my quirky family into its community. Camp Quest will change your life. It changed ours.” -- The Troxell Family

A contribution to Camp Quest is an investment in the future. By teaching kids essential critical thinking skills and providing them with supportive communities, we empowering youth to make their own choices, and grow to become our future leaders.

Once you've made your gift, please share this contest with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Feel free to download the larger version of our bracket to share as well, and thank you!

Camp Quest’s Famous Freethinker program educates campers about positive contributions made by people who challenge traditional religious authority. But this is only the beginning…

Now we match those freethinkers up head-to-head and you decide who wins! Vote with your donations in our Famous Freethinker Faceoff Fundraiser to determine which face cards these Freethinkers become in our upcoming Famous Freethinkers Playing Card Deck!

The links take you to the head-to-head contest page where you can donate to vote!

Is Whoopi Goldberg an Ace? Support her vs. Chris Kluwe so she advances to the next round. Big Frida Kahlo fan? Make her our Ace of Hearts!

Freethinkers who win this round will go on to compete to be the King or the Ace, while the losers will be the Jacks and Queens. The first round closes on December 1, 2014, but a Freethinker can win by getting to $2,500 first, so don't wait until the deadline and find your favorite freethinker has already lost! » Read more

Dale MoGowan is a secular parenting author, director of Foundation Beyond Belief, and parent to a Camp Quest camper. Dale also co-wrote a book called Raising Freethinkers with Amanda Metskas, Camp Quest's executive director. He has facilitated charitable giving by the secular community and helps parents with awesome advice for raising freethinking children.

Last year at the Oklahoma Freethought Convention, FREEOK, Dale gave a great talk with a lot of advice on raising freethinking children. Check out his talk!

Caleb Davis studies social work at West Virginia University, and after graduation he plans to work for Child Protective Services. At 17, Caleb discovered a passion for music, playing guitar and singing in several bands. As founder and president of his school's Secular Student Alliance, Caleb has set himself apart as a campus leader and activist. Indeed, it was his work with the Secular Student Alliance that first led him to Camp Quest. Although he was initially skeptical about the idea of a secular summer camp, today he feels right at home.

My name is Caleb Davis and I am a cabin counselor with Camp Quest Chesapeake. I work at a burrito joint, attend West Virginia University for social work, and in 2 weeks I turn 22. I spend a lot of time in self-reflection because West Virginia can be a pretty lonely place for a freethinker. » Read more

The Troxell Family has been attending Camp Quest Ohio since 2009. The family is comprised of mom, Abby Barker Troxell, who works as a personal banker, dad, Spencer Troxell, who works as a behavioral case manager, and three great little boys, Eliot (13), Jack (9), and Langston (3). They all live in Cincinnati, Ohio and have two chihuahuas named Schopy and Ralph, and a weird cat named Elifuege, who lives in their basement.

This awesome secular family was searching for a community for their children, hear what they have to say about what they found in Camp Quest!

Community is not a concept that is familiar to my wife and I. We are both the black sheep of our respective families, and have struggled throughout our lives with being outsiders in virtually every setting.

Enter our kids.

Upon the birth of our eldest son, we decided we wanted to penetrate this mystery of community, and find a setting where our children could be at once embraced and challenged, without having their essential uniqueness stripped of them.

We tried several venues. Churches. Community organizations. None stuck in exactly the right way. My wife and I had grown into fairly radical individualists, and something about the community structure of most organizations taxed something essential about us. Even the most welcoming organizations demanded a certain amount of conformity.

Enter Camp Quest.

We learned about Camp Quest through Richard Dawkins' website. My wife had always been somewhat ambiguous about religion, but when I grew out of my faith, I did so in a somewhat flamboyant fashion. I was drawn out of the comfort zone of my religion by Christopher Hitchen in particular, but the other three horsemen also intrigued me. I began my reading as a believer seeking to sharpen his faith against the iron of non-believers, and found myself eventually convinced that I was on the wrong team. This revelation came at a good time, because my kids were still young. I can't imagine the damage I might have done to them if I had tried to impart some elements of my former faith to them, had it survived their infanthood. In fact, the birth of my children has a huge effect on my move away from religious faith; faith had been a deleterious factor in my life overall. I can't imagine teaching my children about hell or vicarious redemption. » Read more

Martha Knox is a long time supporter and volunteer for Camp Quest. Her article below discusses Camp Quest in relation to other scouting options and the challenges of nontheistic parenting. This article is reprinted with permission from the July/August 2014 Freethought Society newsletter.www.ftsociety.org

A year ago the Boy Scouts of America adopted a resolution to end the ban on openly gay scouts. Many cheered, despite the fact that the BSA – the scouting group with the greatest resources and prominence in American society – still won’t allow openly gay leaders and continues its ban on atheist leaders and scouts.

In response, Herb Silverman, founder of the Secular Coalition for America, lamented, “There is no similar step forward for atheists. This modified policy would still require local groups to discriminate against atheists, apparently because the Boy Scout Oath implies that an atheist can’t be ‘morally straight’ unless he can do his ‘duty to God.’”

Using this twisted logic, a number of courageous and honest atheists have been kicked out of the Scouts for rejecting all supernatural beliefs. Among them was my friend Darrell Lambert, an Eagle Scout, who had been supported by his entire troop.

Brother and sister Gregory and Valerie Keithly, ages 21 and 17, have been attending Camp Quest for 8 years. Gregory is entering his third year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a major in physics focusing on astronomy. Valerie is entering her senior year of high school. Both have participated in Odyssey of the Mind since elementary school and in Marching Band in high school, with Gregory continuing at the university level. This past year Valerie’s Odyssey of the Mind team went to the world finals competition in three problems, the first team in North Carolina history to do so. Gregory served as assistant coach to the team.

Gregory and Valerie first attended Camp Quest Smoky Mountains in 2006, and have attended 13 Camp Quest sessions at 7 different locations as either a camper, CIT, or counselor.

For 51 weeks out of the year, our lack of religion is not something we like to talk about with others. Because we live in the Bible Belt, our nonbelief is something we have kept to ourselves for fear of being insulted, degraded, or bullied. However, for one week out of the year (or two, or three, or however many we’re doing that year) we can be open. We can be ourselves.

It all began in 2006 when our mother was reading through The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and saw a reference to Camp Quest. After reading more information online, our parents figured it would be a great way to get us out of the house while they prepared for our move from Florida to North Carolina.

Nineteen-year-old Tristan Ginn has been attending Camp Quest Ohio since 2006, this year was his first as a counselor. In the fall, Tristan will begin attending Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis where he plans to major in non-profit management and become active in the campus LGBTQ movement.

Tristan looks forward to returning to Camp Quest every summer to share his passion for Camp Quest's values and to continue his work guiding young campers as they discover the power of critical thinking and the joys of community. Below, Tristan shares his story growing up with Camp Quest.

Camp Quest is one of the most wonderful events in my life every year. I started going to camp when I was nine, a small child in a big world. But camp made that big world a little smaller, and that community of wonderful, loving people grew on me as I went back each year. All of the activities that I experienced as a camper were phenomenal and each pushed me outside my comfort zone. This is what makes the Camp Quest experience a magical one.